Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Partial Color Photography Should've Died With LaserDiscs

So......Because of the blatant title, I feel that I can jump head first into this rant without too much of an introduction. I will, however, give a quick description of "partial color photography", aka "crap" and it's effects on people's taste.

"Partial Color Photography", aka PCP, aka "crap", is what happens when someone, usually a photoshop newbie (or pewb, as we in the photo industry call them), succumbs to a mental battle between good taste and fascination with technology. Good taste being what looks good and fascination with technology being a fascination the technology. Pretty straightforward.

Basically, PCP is a black and white image with certain elements colorized, ie. eyes, flower or flowers, a butterfly, a stick of butter, etc..... You think of it, and i can guarantee you that somebody has done it. "Well this doesn't seem like a big deal", you're thinking. WRONG. it is a big deal. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should do something. For example; writing on blogs. Just because technology allows the planet to blog, doesn't mean that the whole planet should blog. Myself included. Unfortunately, i do, and that's that.

Just real quick, i will be the first to admit that i've done it once. I succumbed to that battle and created a piece of art and said, "that looks good in black and white, except for the eyes. The eyes should be in color." Luckily, i've long since abandoned the old ways and found my inner taste.

Just because photoshop allows you to make a photo black and white except for certain elements, doesn't mean you should.

I look through online portfolio's of wedding photographs and time and time again, i see the same thing. PCP'd photos in the mix. LADIES and DUDES. It's not classy. Try concentrating on the actual photo at hand instead of the what you're going to do afterwards. You'll most likely create better work.

My problem is trying to convince everyone else that it is a bad idea. It's a never ending cycle. People see photographers doing this, thus they think that it looks good, which makes the photographer do it again. Someone (me) needs to stop this horrific cycle. When someone asks for that kind of photography, someone (me) needs to look at them and say, "yeah, i'm probably not going to do that. It's bad taste." I'm not saying i know exactly what is good taste, but i certainly can look at this stuff and say that it is not.

Some of you might have already been verbally assaulted by me, courtesy of this topic, but rest assure that I definitely held back for fear of losing friendships. I don't know why that would make you rest assuredly but hopefully it did. Anyway..... I apologize to anyone that i've offended. If you like that sort of thing, you should probably just trust me, and not like it. You'll thank me when the revolution begins.

5 comments:

Thankfully the only things I know how to do on photoshop are CROP, SHARPEN, and that Auto Enhance thing...oh and occasionally I play with the lightness and darkness (contrast?) if the photo is too much of one or the other.

I have to admit that I used to like it Matt...I'm ashamed, but I'm VERY annoyed by it now, and every time I look at friends photos (weddings, senior pics, etc.) I always find one. Yuck! I support you trying to convince everyone else. Good luck

I have thought of a possible exception, however, it is in cinematogrophy and not PHOtograpy.Schindler's List is shot completely in black and white except for one little jewish girl in a red coat. you see her in parts through out the movie and then, towards the end, you see her little red coat (and presumeably HER) in a pile of dead bodies.

It's movies and not pictures...but this was a time when I felt the added color was warranted.

that would be considered tasteful. Mindy, all those things you said you used are appropriate uses of photoshop. Good job! Rach, don't feel too bad, like i said before, i'd done it as well, but thankfully, we both don't do it anymore. VIVA LA REVOLUTION.!!!

thank you for personally working through this issue with me before i attached my name to anything in print! i can't say that i agree with you on everything, but in matters of facebook and partial color photography i'm with ya!